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The View From In Here

It's so easy to lose perspective (or worry you've lost perspective) when you're deep inside some situation. For instance, an American woman who suddenly trades her life for one in a place most people might think twice about: Juarez, Mexico.

An open letter — supposedly from the foreign media covering Nelson Mandela — to every man woman and child in South Africa. (Thanks to John Matisonn for sending it — it was written by journalist Richard Poplak.) (3 ½ minutes)

A recording of a very unusual conversation that came about in an unusual way. Filmmaker named Eugene Jarecki made a documentary about the drug war, prisons and the criminal justice system called The House I Live In.

He’s been taking it around the country and showing it in prisons, and producer Brian Reed went to one of these screenings where an inmate and a corrections staff member ended up talking face-to-face. (17 ½ minutes)

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Emily Bonderer Cruz is American. Her husband is Mexican. The only way he can ever live with her in the U.S. is to first live outside the U.S. for 10 years. So they moved to Mexico, to a town on the border across from El Paso, a town that was the murder capital of the world when they arrived. Emily writes about her life there on the really great blog "The Real Housewife of Ciudad Juarez." You can read some of her favorite posts here: “20%,” “Secondary Inspection,” “Sexico,” “Too Sad for Witty Titles,” and “How to Deal.” This story was produced by Ann Heppermann with assistance from Debbie Nathan. (22 ½ minutes)

In Israel, Sayed Kashua, writes a weekly newspaper column that are these very frank, entertaining conversations about his day-to-day life. A few years ago, he moved his family from East Jerusalem (where most of the Arabs in the city live) to West Jerusalem (where it’s almost all Jews, not Arabs) and that kind of blew people’s minds, his included. We hear from some of his columns, which are read by actor Ramsey Faragallah.